Knitted Thus Far: Believe it or not, I don't have much to show for the past two months I've been gone. It's been an intense two months of job hunting and interviews with little time to really sit and knit. I do have one pair of warm boot socks completed for a young lady who interpreted for me at church during the summers. They were done in the colors of my alma mater (which is her current university). I hope to send them to her soon since I just got paid.
These two months have been a ride. I've been hearing about how horrible the economy is but I didn't really feel it until I really started hitting the pavement hard. It is next to impossible to find work when you are not working. Nobody wants to give you a chance! I guess it makes sense in some weird place of time and space but it doesn't to me right now. I did find a job though...(FINALLY!) at a childcare quite far from my home. It is a trek and a sacrifice to get there with little pay. (10 bucks an hour at part time hours) Suffice to say, I was making more with my social security. The big difference now though..is I no longer am on Social Security. I know it seems silly but this makes it worth while. I get to earn my check rather than have it given to me by the government. It is one less thing that is attached to me as a "person with a disability" and it leans me more toward Deaf adult.
I only started accepting SSI in order to help cover expenses at school. It seemed (and still seems) a worthy cause to help support myself through school so I can focus. As a student with a hearing loss, we rely on various sources of information to receive the same amount of information that students can just listen to in class. We rely on interpreters or captionists, notes, books, and sometimes independent communication with our teachers. This takes up alot of time and not all of us can work and attend school...I was one of those who couldn't do both.
So I am not ashamed that I had to rely on SSI to help. Now that I don't have to, I am glad to get off the government dime. I am thankful for the help but now I want to pay into that system and hope that my dollars I put into our government will go to someone like me who needed help and found it. (Naive dream..but I'm gonna dream it.)
More later...
Meli
